Bursa Malaysia opens higher but retreats thereafter

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher but retreated thereafter today, amid mixed regional markets performance, due to mild profit-taking activities in selected heavyweights, dealers said.
At 9.22am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,769.75, down 2.01 points, from Wednesday's close of 1,771.76.
The key index opened 0.19 of-a-point higher at 1,771.95.
The market breadth was positive with 216 gainers against 163 losers, while 244 counters were unchanged, 1,231 untraded and 63 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 341.73 million shares worth RM154.56 million.
A dealer said that the Asian markets were expected to be in a range of flat to higher today amid lack of catalysts, despite a fall in crude oil prices may limit the upside.
Among heavyweights, Maybank slipped four sen to RM9.51, TNB eased two sen to RM15.10, Petronas Chemicals and CIMB Group were down by one sen each to RM7.79 and RM6.49, respectively, while Public Bank rose two sen to RM20.72.
Of the actives, PUC improved three sen to 35 sen, Sumatec Resources was flat at five sen, while KNM Group eased half-a-sen to 22.5 sen and Kinsteel shed 1.5 sen to one sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index decreased 4.82 points to 12,739.28, the FBMT 100 Index fell 6.89 points to 12,404.19 but the FBM Ace advanced 54.98 points to 6,607.41.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 3.14 points to 13,119.85 and the FBM 70 perked 15.41 points to 15,750.18.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index slipped 13.78 points to 16,640.69, the Industrial Index climbed 2.22 points to 3,258.41 and the Plantation Index went down 4.27 points to 7,903.18.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM163.36 per gramme, up nine sen from RM163.27 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama